Pa. court: Defendants must prove mental disability
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa.
The state Supreme Court said Wednesday juries will have to rule in most instances when a defendant in a death-penalty case wants to argue that he or she is mentally disabled and therefore ineligible for execution.
The high court upheld the death penalty for Abraham Sanchez Jr., who was convicted of the May 2007 random shooting death of businessman Ray Diener on his doorstep in Elizabethtown. Sanchez’s lawyer said the court missed an opportunity to prevent unnecessary capital trials by disposing of the mental disability evaluation before the trial starts.
The justices’ ruling means jurors will have to unanimously agree that the defendant qualifies to avoid execution under a 9-year-old U.S. Supreme Court case known as Atkins vs. Virginia.
“We view the centrality of the jury in our constitutional system to weigh heavily in favor of reposing the determination with the jury,” Chief Justice Ronald Castille wrote for the majority.
In the new decision, the Pennsylvania court said jurors should rule on the issue before deciding if aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors, the process by which they determine if capital punishment is warranted.
The justices had previously ruled on the standards by which a defendant would be considered “mentally retarded,” the term the court uses, but this was the first time they laid out procedures for how to address the issue at trial.